


If You Go Down To The Woods

by Fyre



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-19
Updated: 2012-04-19
Packaged: 2017-11-03 22:39:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/386773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fyre/pseuds/Fyre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henry decides to skip out on school one day, and finds out something he doesn't expect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If You Go Down To The Woods

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little oneshot for Schmoo999 who wanted Henry skipping school :)
> 
> (Also, don't know if I mentioned, but I'm on tumblr now - [A Muse of Fyre](http://amuseoffyre.tumblr.com/)

Miss Blanchard was still in jail.

Henry knew Emma was working to save her, but that meant Emma was always real busy as well. It sucked, not being able to see her, and he always made sure to have his walkie-talkie with him, just in case she was nearby.

School was boring without Miss Blanchard.

She always had been his favourite teacher. She had always been his only teacher, no matter how much bigger he got. That was how he figured out the curse was real. No one else in his class had birthdays or got taller or even lost a tooth.

The substitute teacher made things even worse. She was called Mrs Frost, and she always treated them all like they were doing something wrong. He didn’t feel bad at all when he lied and said he was going to the bathroom.

He didn’t have his backpack or his coat, but it wasn’t too cold, so he ran for the gate as soon as he could.

He knew he couldn’t go right into town, because everyone would know he was skipping class, so he headed for the river. 

There was something great about just being able to sit and throw pebbles at the big rock that stood up in the middle of it. He could hit it almost every time, even if he had his eyes half-closed.

He gathered up a great pile of rocks and started tossing them, keeping count.

“Isn’t this a schoolday?”

Henry yelped, spinning around. 

The guy with the bike was standing further up the bank, grinning. “This doesn’t look like any class I remember,” he said, stepping down onto the shore.

Henry blushed. “Miss Blanchard isn’t at school,” he said. “I don’t like the other teacher.”

“Hey, don’t worry,” the man said, smiling. “I’m not going to tell.” He bent and picked up one of the Henry’s stones and studied the rock in the middle of the river. When he threw the stone, it bounced right off the rock and into the water.

“Good shot!”

The man laughed, offering Henry another stone. “You don’t think you’re the only kid to play hookie in the world, do you? I didn’t have a river, where I grew up, but there was a lake, and a tree stuck out in the water.”

“What are you doing down here?” Henry asked, turning the stone over in his hand.

The man shrugged. “Walking,” he said. “I like to get out of town. It’s stifling.”

“Because of the curse?”

The man laughed. “Part of it,” he agreed. “Mostly because there’s nowhere to really feel free there. Everyone has their lives and they’re so determined to live them quietly that they don’t look anywhere else. ”

Henry nodded in agreement. “It sucks,” he declared. “I can’t wait until Emma breaks the curse and we’re back somewhere else.”

“Somewhere without school?” 

Henry grinned. “That sounds good. Maybe I can be a knight or something.”

“Or a King,” the man agreed with a laugh. He tossed another rock, but this time, it missed the rock. “You stay out of trouble. Your mother would gut me if she knew I helped you hide out from the Queen.”

Henry nodded happily, returning to a cheerful morning of stone-throwing.

It was only when his stomach started growling that he knew he had to go somewhere to get something to eat.

He wiped his hands on his pants and headed back up the bank and into the forest. It wasn’t dangerous, not really. There were trails all over the place, and he liked to think it was because of people trying to find their way back to the Enchanted Forest, but never quite getting there.

Henry picked up a stick and swatted at low branches, squishing through sticky muddy patches on the trail. He knew his mom would glare at his pants when he got home, all stained with mud, but she couldn’t tell him what to do, not anymore, not after what she was doing to Miss Blanchard. 

He knew he was heading back in the right direction for town, and he knew this part of the forest better than anyone else. It was his favourite place to run and hide out after his castle, where he could pretend he was the brave hero on his way to save the Princess. But not to kiss her or anything, because that was gross. 

Something metal hit something and he stopped.

He didn’t know what an axe sounded like, but he was pretty sure it didn’t sound like that.

Henry set down his stick and crept on, tiptoeing as much as he could through long, tangling ferns. They kept rustling around his legs and he bit his lip as he got closer and closer to the sound. It sounded like digging, something heavy and wet.

There was a ridge ahead, and the noise was coming from below it, so Henry crept around a tree and peered down cautiously, holding onto the trunk as if his life depended on it. He could see someone digging, and he gasped, edging back around the tree.

Mr Gold!

Mr Gold was digging something - or maybe burying something - in the middle of the woods, where no one could see him!

That wasn’t good.

Everyone knew that his mom was bad, but that Mr Gold was even worse.

If he was hiding something in the woods, then it had to be something really special.

The sound of digging stopped and Henry pressed back against the tree trunk, putting both hands over his mouth and trembling. If Mr Gold knew he was there, then he was going to be in so much trouble and no one even knew where he was.

He could hear Mr Gold moving, and leaves and branches rustling, but it didn’t sound like it was getting any closer. Henry squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath, until the footsteps faded away, and all he could hear were the birds and the wind rustling the leaves.

He crept around the edge of the tree trunk again and peeked down. Mr Gold was gone, and there was no sign that he was anywhere nearby. Henry chewed on his bottom lip. It was dangerous to mess with Mr Gold’s stuff, but it was impossible to guess who he was. Maybe the stuff he was hiding would give him away.

Henry slid down the grassy ridge, using roots and branches to keep himself from falling, and landed in a heap in the mud at the bottom. His pants were totally ruined, and he knew he would think that was great if he didn’t have something much more exciting - and frightening - to worry about.

It took him a minute to find the place where Mr Gold had been digging. He’d covered it with leaves and branches, and Henry’s fingers were all scratched by the time he cleared them out of the way. The dirt was sticky and thick, and Henry wished he had a shovel or something. 

His belly was growling, but he ignored it. Sometimes, there were more important things than lunch.

He dug and dug with his hands, deeper and deeper, until the mud was like heavy bricks. He pulled them out one by one, and stared into the whole, trembling with excitement. There was a box there. A long, thin wooden box. He pulled it out of the dirt with a squelching sound and laid it across his lap.

It was a plain box, nothing special, but there were faded carvings in the lid, like it was old and worn. Henry traced the shape of them. They looked like the borders in his book, and his heart was thumping hard.

It was something real. It could be evidence.

“So.” A voice behind him almost made him drop the box in panic. “You caught me, Henry.”

Henry twisted around, shaking. Gold was standing right there, as if he had never even been gone, his gloved hands on his cane. He was smiling, just a little, and it was even more frightening than when his mom smiled when she was happy. 

Henry hugged the box tightly to his chest. “What do you want?” he asked, trying his best to sound brave.

“Want?” Gold put his head to one side. “You have something that is mine.”

Henry eyed him warily. “What is it?” he asked, scooting backwards in the dirt when Mr Gold took a step towards him.

“Nothing important,” Gold murmured. He was still smiling that weird not-real smile, but there was something in his face that was making Henry wonder if he had Emma’s superpower as well. It was knowing that the box was important, and knowing that Mr Gold kind of wanted him to know about it too. And knowing he told him it was nothing just to make sure he knew it was something.

Henry’s hands moved and he flipped open the lid of the box, letting it fall. 

Mr Gold didn’t move again, just standing there, watching him, and Henry felt like he had just rubbed a lamp and a genie was right in front of him, waiting to tell him the truth.

Henry reached into the box, and pulled out the bundle of rags. They looked and smelled real old. He carefully unwrapped them, and stared. It was a knife. A long, thin knife with a weird, wavy blade, and there was a name on it. It tingled in his hand, like the time he touched the socket and got an electric shock, only this time, it tingled right down to his toes.

“Oh,” he whispered. He looked up at Gold. “You know!”

To his amazement, Mr Gold spread his arms and bowed just a little. “Indeed I do.”

Henry looked at the knife, the name glittering there, and he grinned. “Rumpelstiltskin!”

The man he could never figure out, the scary shop-keeper, the creeping, sneaking, dark-wrapped man, laughed like an imp and grinned back at him. It made sense, of course it did, and Henry knew he should have guessed. Someone who only looked and acted like he was evil, and only gave people what they wanted for a price.

“Now, my boy,” Gold said, “if you’ll return what’s mine…”

Henry looked at him, then at the dagger. It was magic, and it was real, and it could prove to Emma that the curse was really happening. He looked back at Gold, who was staring at him, one hand open, palm-up. He couldn’t take it, Henry realised. It was important. It was magic and it was important, and it was powerful, and if he took it home, and his mom found it, it would be terrible.

With a smile, Henry handed the dagger back, and Mr Gold looked relieved, which showed Henry he had done the right thing. “So,” he said, “you’re part of Operation Cobra now, Rumpelstiltskin.”

Mr Gold leaned down to replace the dagger in the box. “Operation Cobra?” he asked, looking Henry in the eye.

“To break the curse,” he said, beaming. “Emma and me and some others are already in on it.”

Gold smiled and for a second, he looked like he might be a good guy. “I like the sound of that,” he said. He leaned a little closer. “Do we get badges?”

Henry’s eyes widened in delight. “Buttons!” he said gleefully. “So we know who is on our side!”

Mr Gold looked like he was trying not to smile. “Smart boy,” he said. “I don’t know where you get it from.”

Henry just made a face.


End file.
